The dental health benefits of adding fluoride to drinking water may be smaller now than before fluoride toothpaste was widely available, an updated Cochrane review has found. The team of researchers from the Universities of Manchester, Dundee and Aberdeen reviewed the evidence from 157 studies which compared communities that had fluoride added to their water supplies with communities that had no additional fluoride in their water. The research was published in Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews .
They found that the benefit of fluoridation has declined since the 1970s, when fluoride toothpaste became more widely available. The contemporary studies were conducted in high-income countries. The impact of community water fluoridation in low- and middle-income countries is less clear, due to the absence of recent research.
Fluoride, used in many commercially available toothpastes and varnishes, is known to reduce tooth decay. Governments in many countries have added fluoride to the drinking water supply to improve population oral health, although there are polarized views on whether this is the right action to take. "When interpreting the evidence, it is important to think about the wider context and how society and health have changed over time," says co-author Anne-Marie Glenny, Professor of Health Sciences Research at the University of Manchester.
"Most of the studies on water fluoridation are over 50 years old, before the availability of fluoride toothpaste. Contemporary .
